Comments on Meeting at Ticonderoga

Does anyone know if the script for this episode is available? I seem to remember the poem "Ticonderoga" which is apparently one of the best documented ghost stories. I wonder if it is true to the poem?

It's one of the missing ones -- the audio doesn't exist anywhere on the planet, at least as far as anyone knows. The script exists but just isn't available, the audio was lost who knows how many years ago.

If you can tell me where to find the script a the University of Maryland, I can go photocopy it and put up a transcription. I leave right near the University, but there are 5 or 6 libraries on campus, so I'd need to know which one!

OK, I called Hornbake Library (on the University of Maryland campus) and the Library of American Broadcasting is on the third floor open 10-5 M-F. So, next time I have to go to the doctor or something, I'll take the whole day and stop by. They have 106 scripts, but they won't let me copy the whole run, so which episodes do you want? I'm presuming that the most important episodes would be those for which there is no audio version (I'll check with them on this as well).

In addition, do you have some sort of a non-profit status or something like that? If so, it would be much, much easier to get a complete set of scripts. The concern from the University of Maryland is that people will try to resell this material without permission from the copyright holder.

As a further aside, who is the copyright holder? It is probably rash to assume, but I'm guess that Mutual Broadcasting got bought by somebody...

At that point in history there weren't any audio copyrights, so the audio was protected by the script copyright... thus I'd expect that the script writer, Wyllis Cooper, would have had the copyright. Cooper, however, died 48 years ago in 1955.

Radio Spirits Inc. makes a living by digging up copyright holders so they can get exclusive liscencing rights. I asked them when I started this site, and they said they've done some searching but haven't been able to find a copyright holder for Quiet, Please. This doesn't mean there neccesarily isn't one. However, according to copyright laws of the time I figure that the script copyrights would have had to be renewed by the copyright holder sometime around the 1970's. Since the person probably didn't even know or care that they's inherited the rights to some obscure radio series scripts for which only 10 or so episodes were known to be in circulation at the time (most of the audio was dug up in the last decade or so), I think there's a strong chance it's no longer under copyright.

No, I don't have any non-profit status. But that wouldn't make any difference, I should think, since being non-profit doesn't mean having rights to the material.

OK, I tracked down that the Mutual Broadcasting System had been purchased through a long series of purchases by Westwood One and I e-mailed them to see if they were asserting copyright.

I work a couple of blocks down from the Library of Congress, so I can go research whether or not the copyright owner (Wyillis or relative) renewed the copyright. I'm not familiar with script copyrights, but if it is like a book copyright, I can find the renewal register and scan a copy to show to the University of Maryland to prove that the scripts are now public domain. This is something I'll have to talk with the Library of Congress about, but as soon as I know where to look, I'll troop down there on a lunch break and check it all out.

I'm a production coordinator for Project Gutenberg http://www.gutenberg.net (which provides electronic copies of public domain works for free--right now over 7,700 books!), so I'm quite confident that if I can show the scripts to be public domain, PG will host them (and, of course, I imagine you will as well). I've worked with the University of Maryland through PG before and I may well be able to get them to waive the reproduction costs of a copy so that it won't cost anything to actually get the pages...the hard part will be scanning and getting them proofed, but I have friends over at the Distributed Proofreader's site, so I think that if I can get a hardcopy, they'll take it from there!

Audio Copyrights did exist in 1948 in that the network generally held the license to distribute at the time (if it was set up that way). It is possible that the scripts did in fact belong to the property of Mutual or later ABC, though it is very likely that Cooper maintained control over his own creative work. He produced the show as well as directed and wrote it. When he died, his wife Emily probably retained the rights. However, the LOC does not seem to show any copyright holder for the written work.

I am in the process of researching the works of Cooper and will also be going to the Library of American Broadcasting in the fall. The scope of my research is more than just Quiet, Please, but that certainly is one of his major outputs.

Depending upon how the donation of the scripts, contracts, etc. to the LAB were stipulated, the scripts are mostly likely protected from general copying except for a few pages or possibly limited to a small number of scripts. Most likely the LAB controls the distribution of the material at least in their possession.

Cooper had no children, so unless there was another relative who maintained the copyright (Cooper had a brother who lived in Chicago), then there is no rights owner.

I really have a fondness for this show, and the Lost epsides bothered me. How feasible is it (if the scripts could be located) to have actors re-record these radio plays? This seems to be right up the alley of say Seeing Ear Theater, or some such, and it's better than not having these episodes at all.